News

The Interpol said that the agency is is ready to offer full support to the Sri Lankan authorities in investigating the country's deadliest terror attack that killed 290 people in a series of eight blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in the country.

Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock in a Twitter message said, "Interpol strongly condemns the horrific attacks and has offered its full support to the investigation being carried out by national authorities."

Eight coordinated explosions targeted Easter worshippers and high end hotels popular with international guests. 

FBI arrives in Sri Lanka

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy Nancy Van Horn said that a team of FBI officers have arrived in Sri Lanka to help local authorities to carry out investigations into teh serial bomb blasts that rocked the island nation on Easter Sunday.

The Government Analysts' Department also confirmed that both the INTERPOL and FBI would be sending officers to help Sri Lanka with the investigations into the the deadly attacks.

Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera who is in New York to represent Sri Lanka at the Financing for Development Forum of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres on 16 April 2019. 

At the meeting, the Secretary-General recalled his visits to Sri Lanka in the past including his first visit in 1978. Stating that he was impressed by the peaceful resolution of the recent political crisis in Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General reaffirmed the commitment of the United Nations to continue to support the people of Sri Lanka including in the reconciliation and sustainable development agenda.

Meeting with UNICEF Executive Director

Samaraweera also held discussions with the Executive Director of UNICEF, Henrietta H. Fore on the sidelines of the ECOSOC forum in New York on 16th of April. They discussed matters related to financing for Early Childhood Development (ECD).

The Finance Minister said that studies across the world have proved that children who participate in ECD programmes attain higher earnings and the childcare facilities initiative that was introduced via Budget 2019 will be a first step in promoting quality services for the early childhood stage.

Samaraweera shares Sri Lanka’s experience in inclusive growth at ECOSOC forum

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera is representing Sri Lanka at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Forum on Financing for Development (FfD) convened by the President of ECOSOC, Inga Rhonda King, at the latter’s invitation.

Participating in the Ministerial Financial Dialogue Panel Discussion on ‘Promoting Inclusive Growth Reducing Inequalities’ on 15 April, the Minister shared with the FfD, measures taken in Sri Lanka towards this end, including details of the ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ concessionary loan scheme which was launched in mid-2018 with the objective of creating 100,000 young entrepreneurs especially in the villages. 

Addressing the General Debate of the FfD on 16 April, Minister Samaraweera explained some of the measures taken by Sri Lanka including in the 2019 budget to address identified challenges in sustainable and equitable development. 

Stating that financial commitments are increasingly challenging for countries like Sri Lanka that are subject to significant fiscal constraints, the Minister emphasised the need for international cooperation including for supporting measures to prevent and mitigate the debilitating impacts of climate change in vulnerable economies. 

The Minister urged for greater public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder initiatives globally, to ensure the successful achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) so that no one is left behind.

Islamic State fighters carried out the Easter Sunday attacks against churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 310 people, according to ISIS’s Amaq propaganda agency.

“A security source to Amaq agency: the implementers of the attacks which targeted nationals of Coalition member nations and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday were from fighters of the Islamic State,” the message posted on social media on Tuesday, April 23 read.

At least 310 people were killed when suicide bomb blasts ripped through three hotels and three churches as worshippers attended Easter services in Sri Lanka.

In a later statement, ISIS named seven people it said carried out the attacks: Abu Hamza attacked St Anthony’s Church in Colombo; Abu Khalil struck St Sebastian’s in Negombo; Abu Muhammad hit the Church of Zion in Batticaloa; Abu Obaida, Abu al-Bara and Abu Mokhtar “detonated a number of explosive devices” and then detonated their explosive vests at the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels in Colombo; and Abu Abdallah “clashed with police officers and killed three” in Dematagoda.

That statement was followed by another release from Amaq which included an image it said was of the “perpetrators of martyrdom attacks in Sri Lanka.” The image showed eight similarly dressed individuals, some holding knives. One man whose face was not covered was holding an AK-type rifle.

The unmasked man appears to be Zahran Hashim, a self-styled Islamic preacher who was known to hold pro-ISIS views. He was earlier named on social media accounts supportive of ISIS as Abu Obaida, one of the hotel bombers, and CNN News 18 on Sunday named him as the Shangri La Hotel bomber.

In fourth release on Tuesday, Amaq published a video showing the eight militants pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Screenshot from an Amaq video showing the eight militants who attacked churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, April 23, 2019

There were at least eight explosions on Sunday. The first six – at the churches and hotels – were within 20 minutes of each other, while two later blasts at a hotel and a house in a Colombo suburb came later.

Police have detained at least 40 people as they investigate the attacks.

At a Tuesday press conference, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that other suspects remained at large, potentially with explosives, adding that some of the 32 Sri Lankans who travelled to the Middle East to fight with ISIS had returned and have been monitored by security forces since.

Wickremesinghe said a bomb targeting another hotel did not explode.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s state minister of defense Ruwan Wijewardene told parliament that “preliminary investigations have revealed that what happened in Sri Lanka was in retaliation for the attack against Muslims in Christchurch.”

Fifty people were killed in shooting attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on March 15.

But New Zealand has “not yet seen” any intelligence reports linking the deadly bombings in Sri Lanka to last month’s mosque massacre in Christchurch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office said on Tuesday.

“We understand the Sri Lankan investigation into the attack is in its early stages,” Ardern’s spokesperson said. “New Zealand has not yet seen any intelligence upon which such an assessment might be based.”

Wijewardene said investigations showed that a local group called National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) was behind the attack and was linked to a little-known radical Islamist group in India.

“This National Thowheeth Jama’ath group which carried out the attacks had close links with JMI it has now been revealed,” Wijewardene told parliament, in an apparent reference to a group known as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen India.

Little is known about JMI, other than reports it was established last year and is affiliated to a similarly named group in Bangladesh.

‘Family cell’ targeted hotelsPolice sources in Sri Lanka told AFP that the attackers who targeted two of the hotels hit Sunday were brothers, sons of a wealthy Colombo spice trader.

The brothers, whose names have not been revealed, were in their late twenties and operated their own “family cell,” an investigation officer said, adding that they were key members of the NTJ.

One checked into the Cinnamon Grand hotel and the other the Shangri-La on Saturday.

The next morning, at virtually the same time, they went to the hotels’ Easter Sunday breakfast buffets and blew up explosives-laden backpacks, an investigation officer said.

One brother gave false identity details when he checked into the hotel, the investigator said, but the other gave a real address which led police commandos to their family home in a commercial area of Colombo.

“When the Special Task Force went there to investigate, one brother’s wife set off explosives killing herself and her two children,” the officer said.

“It was a single terror cell operated by one family,” the investigator said.

“They had the cash and the motivation. They operated the cell and it is believed they influenced their extended family.”

Three police commandos were also killed in the blast, and several extended family members are among those in detention.

A fourth attack against another hotel failed, sources also told AFP, though it was not immediately clear if the bomber’s explosives had failed or he had chosen not to detonate them.

“This man had also checked into the hotel the previous day,” an official source told AFP.

But after the Shangri-la blast, staff became suspicious and the man was tracked to a residence near the capital. He blew himself up when confronted by police, the source said. Two bystanders were also killed.

Nilan Romesh Samarasinghe, a cousin of Makandure Madush, together with five other suspects who were arrested in Dubai with the drug kingpin were deported to Sri Lanka last night.

Mohamed Riyaz, Gayan Perera, Mohamed Jabeer, Suresh Ranasinghe and Rupasinghe Hewage arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at 4.45 a.m. today (17), aboard UL 226, the Police spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that they were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department at the BIA for further questioning this morning.

Governor of the Eastern Province, Mohamed Hizbullah has dismissed allegations that National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) was responsible for the multiple bomb blasts that terrorized Sri Lanka on Sunday. The Governor made these remarks in a phone conversation with The Leaders Online, a Malaysian news outlet. 

“Some people claim it is Thowheed Jamaath. We are investigating. We are consistently investigating but there are no evidence against any party, any community or any group. They are innocent but we are sure we can identify them (the perpetrators),” said Hizbullah to The Leaders Online on Sunday.

Rajitha says 'NTJ' involved

However, the Sri Lankan government said yesterday that some of the suicide bombers and others arrested were linked to an obscure radical Islamist group known as National Thowheeth Jamath, a group the government singled out to police for monitoring as a possible threat after the foreign security services issued their warning.

The sophistication of the Easter-morning attacks indicated to Sri Lankan and international terror experts that whoever carried them out likely had help from experienced international terrorists, perhaps even al Qaeda or Islamic State, Sri Lankan officials said.

“We have found that NTJ was involved in the attacks,” said Health MInister Rajitha Senaratne, using an abbreviation for what he called “a local organization.”

The Saudi Arabian government has agreed to provide a concessional loan of 187.5 million Saudi Riyal (SAR), around Rs. 8.7 billion, for a project to establish a fully equipped Faculty of Medicine in the Sabaragamuwa University at Ratnapura.  

This Project is to be launched with the aim of constructing the essentially needed infrastructure facilities and to provide the students with the state of the art teaching and learning facilities (laboratory and other equipment) that would facilitate in providing the students with world-class medical education by constructing the Faculty of Medicine at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. 

This programme will contribute to the government policy of augmenting the opportunities for higher education in the field of medicine in Sri Lanka.

A delegation headed by the secretary to the ministry of finance Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga, secretary to ministry of higher education Priyantha Mayadunne and the director general of the external resources department Priyantha Rathnayake recently visited Riyadh from the 6th to 9th April 2019 for negotiation in this regard.

They held discussions with the delegation of Saudi Fund for Development headed by Mohammed Aldolailan, acting director general, operations department and advisor to the SFD.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police are holding a Syrian national in custody for questioning over the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, three government and military sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

“The terrorist investigation division of the police arrested a Syrian national following the attacks for interrogation,” a source said. Two other officials with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the detention. “He was arrested after interrogation of local suspects,” a second source said.

No group has yet to claim responsibility for Easter Sunday’s suicide bomb attacks on three churches and four luxury hotels that killed 290 people and wounded about 500 people.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday offered prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, India.

Accompanied by wife Jayanthi Pushpa Kumari, other family members and some government officials, Sirisena arrived here from Hyderabad on Tuesday.

After an overnight stay at the TTD guest house on the hills, he visited the temple at the crack of dawn and offered prayers to the presiding deity, Lord Venkateswara. He spent about half an hour at the shrine, a temple official said.

After paying obeisance, the island nation's President was presented with a sacred silk cloth, a framed photo of Lord Venkateswara besides 'prasadam' by the officials of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which governs the ancient hill temple.

Before leaving the temple, the priests at Sri Ranganayakula Mandapam, blessed him. Sirisena would leave for Bangalore to fly back to Colombo, the official added.

Earlier, he had visited the holy hills in August 2016 and February 2015.(PTI)

The first burials from Sunday’s bombings in Sri Lanka have taken place as the nation began a day of mourning and the death toll mounted.
Three minutes of silence were held across the nation on Tuesday to honour those killed, with the official toll now 310, according to police.

The silence began at 8.30am, coinciding with the start of Sunday’s attacks on Christian worshippers and hotel guests.

At St Sebastian’s, coffins were brought in individually for services in the run-up to a mass memorial beginning mid-morning. “There are so many bodies that we can’t accommodate them all at once,” Anthony Jayakody, auxilliary bishop of Colombo, told AFP.

Flags were lowered to half mast on government buildings, and people bowed their heads but tensions remained high. Bomb disposal squads were called to Kollupitiya railway station in Colombo after an unattended package was found on a train. The US embassy urged people to steer clear of the area before the all-clear was given.

A state of emergency has been brought in and a total of 40 arrests have been made, with the second overnight curfew lifting at 4am.

Parliament is due to convene on Tuesday, with an announcement expected from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Investigators are now hunting for clues on whether a local Islamist group named as the chief suspect in the attacks – National Thowheeth Jama’ath – received “international support”, said cabinet minister and government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne.

A woman kneels next to a coffin during a mass burial of victims at a cemetery near St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

A woman kneels next to a coffin during a mass burial of victims at a cemetery near St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters 
National Thowheeth Jama’ath is a newly formed group in Sri Lanka committed to a militant and intolerant Islamist ideology. But though it is known for being a virulently anti-Buddhist and has been linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues, it has not previously been linked to terrorism. Four of its members were arrested in January.
Experts say it is unlikely the organisation would have been able to rapidly develop the capability to perpetrate a complex attack involving multiple suicide bombings without very significant outside assistance. Senaratne himself said it was not possible for such “a small organisation” to carry out such well coordinated suicide strikes.
As security forces continued combing Colombo for any more explosives, focus was shifting to the role that infighting within the government may have played in allowing Sunday’s attacks to occur.
An intelligence note detailing the names, targets and whereabouts of possible attackers was circulated in parts of the government but is understood not to have reached the cabinet nor the prime minister. It is unclear whether the country’s security council also considered the warnings.
Sri Lanka’s government has been divided into factions since a constitutional crisis late last year, when the prime minister and his allies stopped being invited to meetings of the country’s top security officials.
On Tuesday at St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo – where scores died as they gathered for Easter Sunday prayers – a crowd of a few dozen people held candles and prayed silently, palms pressed together.
Some of them struggled to hold back tears and as the three minutes drew to a close, the crowd began to chant prayers.
The attacks were the worst against the country’s small Christian minority, who make up just seven percent of its population of 21 million. It is the worst atrocity since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended a decade ago.
President Maithripala Sirisena’s office said there was intelligence that “international terror groups” were “behind local terrorists” and that he would seek foreign help to investigate.
The state of emergency, which gave police and the military special powers to counter militant strikes, came into force at midnight. Suspects can be detained without a court order.
Tensions remained high and security heavy after a bomb discovered by police on Monday near one of the targeted churches blew up before police could defuse it. Although there was a powerful blast, no injuries were reported.
Police also found 87 bomb detonators at a Colombo bus station.
Details have begun to emerge about some of the foreigners killed in the blasts. The United States reported at least four Americans killed – including a child – and the Netherlands raised their toll to three.
A Danish billionaire lost three of his children in the attacks, a spokesman for his company said.
Eight Britons, eight Indians, two Australians and nationals from Turkey, France, Japan and Portugal, were also killed, according to Sri Lankan officials and foreign governments.
The suicide bombers hit three Colombo luxury hotels popular with foreign tourists – the Cinnamon Grand, the Shangri-La and the Kingsbury – and three churches: two in the Colombo region and one in the eastern city of Batticaloa.
Two additional blasts were triggered as security forces carried out raids searching for suspects.
Interpol said it was deploying investigators and specialists to Sri Lanka, and the US State Department warned of possible further attacks in a travel advisory.
Ethnic and religious violence has plagued Sri Lanka for decades, with a 37-year conflict with Tamil rebels followed by an upswing in recent years in clashes between the Buddhist majority and Muslims.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said bank interest rates will be reduced to strengthen the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

The Prime Minister addressing the media at Temple Trees yesterday said the Monetary Board will issue the relevant guidelines and directives in this regard by next week. Accordingly, it has been proposed to reduce lending rates by about 200 basis points.

“In view of the various submissions made by the private sector, especially by the SME sector that lending rates are very high and access to credit is difficult since banks are reluctant to provide temporary overdraft (TODs), the members of the Monetary Board, CEOs of the banks and the representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants were invited to a meeting to propose means of addressing these issues,” the Prime Minister said.

A working group comprising a Monetary Board Member, representatives of the banks and the Institute of Chartered Accountants was appointed to submit suggestions to address these specific issues.

“The main aim of these proposals is to ensure that the lending rates across the system reduce in an equitable manner by about 200 basis points instead of only benefitting the major corporate sector. Although no interest rate caps on lending, has been proposed by the working group at this stage, the need for it will be reviewed if the intended reductions do not take place expeditiously” the Prime Minister added.

With these measures it is hoped that SMEs will be developed parallel to the reduction of interest rates. Accordingly, it has been proposed to introduce some limitations to the interest for depositors, the Prime Minister said.

A discussion was held with financial sector officials, Finance Ministry officers and Economic Affairs Ministry officers and with Minister Malik Samarawickreme aiming to seek measures to reduce bank interest rates.”We are going to take decisions in accordance with the report we received in this regard,”the PM said.

The Prime Minister said that it is difficult to develop entrepreneurs and business entities as a result of high loan burden. According to the Prime Minister the country’s economy lost US$ 1,000 million during the 51 day rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“Even though we hoped to reduce interest rates last year, due to the 51 day political crisis, it couldn’t be achieved as the country lost US$ 1,000 million. Due to the losing of US$ 1,000 million.We couldn’t achieve the target but we are in a position to reduce it now,” the PM added.

He further said that all these measures are taken while giving priority to secure the stability of the country’s economy.He added that necessary amendments are done after monitoring this process after about six weeks period.

The following recommendations have been made by the working group including imposing deposit interest rate caps on banks and revise the basis for determining the existing caps on finance companies, providing the banks the ability to define their credit policies to enable advances up to Rs.25 mn granted to the SME sector to be handled in a manner that will provide flexibility to banks to reduce the expected loss impairment charge arising from IFRS 9 for a period up to June 2020 during which time the banks will be required to validate their internal models. 

In particular, the banks could have internal policies setting out the criteria for granting and extending TODs so that a mere extension of the facility would not require it to be treated as impaired if there are sufficient underline business reasons for the extension, permit deposits up to Rs.250 million from SMEs (instead of the present limit of Rs.50 mn) to be treated in a manner that will reduce the liquidity requirements required under the liquidity coverage ratio and the banks to design a revolving working capital product for SMEs to replace the TDOs and introduce risk-based pricing instead of applying the unauthorised OD rates.

U.S. experts joined four Sri Lankan film professionals in a panel discussion about how effective film distribution benefits Sri Lanka’s movie industry, artists, and audiences on March 30 at Hatch, a workplace for entrepreneurs. 

Speaking at the event, U.S. Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz said. “One of our core beliefs is freedom of speech, and movies are one of the most powerful ways that we can share our stories with each other.  Strong and transparent laws that protect film distribution will ensure that Sri Lankan creatives will drive economic growth, are paid fairly, and can share Sri Lanka’s stories with the world.”

Representing Film Independent, America’s premiere organization for independent moviemaking, entertainment lawyer Michael Donaldson and Global Media Makers Senior Program Manager Shari Page emphasized how film distribution is a key channel for storytellers to reach their audiences.  Moderated by Jaffna International Film Festival Director Anoma Rajakaruna, the panel included filmmaker Boodiee Keerthisena, a representative of Ceylon Theatres, and Chairman of Scope Cinemas Naveed Cader.  Following the panel, participants and audience members gathered for a networking event at Commons Café. 

Film Independent is a non-profit organization aimed at helping filmmakers create movies, build audiences, and diversify the film industry. An expert on intellectual property rights laws, Mr. Donaldson is an award-winning author whose books on clearance and copyright are used in over 50 film schools.  Ms. Page has worked as a casting associate and producer for over 27 productions including the Golden Globe winning series “Californication” for Showtime. Mr. Donaldson and Ms. Page are in Sri Lanka as part of the Global Media Makers program, an innovative mentoring initiative and cultural exchange program designed to foster relationships between American filmmakers and industry professionals with international social issue filmmakers.

118 new ambulances were distributed to hospitals across the country at an event held at the Colombo Municipal Council grounds under the patronage of the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Dr Rajitha Senaratne, today (11). 

The distribution of ambulances was the continuation of a programme to distribute a total of 450 brand new Ford and Mercedes Benz ambulances to hospitals through out the country.